Satanists to use Hobby Lobby rule to skirt state abortion laws

The Satanic Temple said in a statement on its website that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on Hobby Lobby now gives women the right to opt out of state laws that require abortion seekers to first read pro-life materials.

Satanic Temple officials were referring to states’ right-to-know laws that mandate women wanting abortions must first read through literature that lets them know of options, Raw Story reported. Thirty-five states have these laws, 33 of which require that the women receive specific information on the gestational age of the baby.

Critics of the laws argue that they’re slanted in favor of pro-life views. But now the Satanic Temple thinks it’s found an opt-out loophole because of the recent Hobby Lobby case that lets business owners with religious-based objections decline to provide a handful of birth control options — those seen as abortifacients — to Obamacare participants.

The line of logic is this: The Satanic Temple says that any state-mandated information on personal health that is not rooted in what its members see as scientific fact is a violation of its own “religious” beliefs, Raw Story reported.

“While we feel we have a strong case for an exemption regardless of the Hobby Lobby ruling, the Supreme Court has decided that religious beliefs are so sacrosanct that they can even trump scientific fact,” said the group’s spokesman, who uses the name Lucien Greaves, Raw Story reported. “This was made clear when they allowed Hobby Lobby to claim certain contraceptives were abortifacients, which in fact they are not.”

So the Satanic Temple created a website for women who want abortions to print out a letter for medical providers to argue for exemption of state informed consent laws.

The group posts on its website that all “women who share our deeply held belief that their personal choices should be made with access to the best available information, undiluted by biased or false information, are free to seek protection with this exemption whether they are members of the Satanic Temple or not,” Raw Story said.